Tuesday, July 26, 2011

From "A win for owners, players -- and lawyers" by Ashley Fox at ESPN.com:

It has been an arduous path the NFL and its players have traveled these past four months. It has been at times ugly, unnerving, nasty and unsettling. Labor disputes always are, and this one has been no exception.

Both sides took hits and neither will walk away unscathed now that they have finally agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement.

That the NFL Players Association had to decertify, that the owners had to lock out the players, that there had to be a halt to league business was just silly when everyone was making money hand over fist.

The league was healthy, not broken. This dispute was about greed, plain and simple. It was not about putting the best product on the field or playing for the love of the game. It was about money, and how much everyone got.

Of course, the answer is that the players and the owners will continue to print money. The television contracts will only get larger. The fan interest will only grow. The stadiums will continue to be packed (most of them), and the merchandise will continue to fly off the shelves.

The NFL is a $9.3 billion business today. Who knows what it will be in 2020, but it will not be less. It will be more, potentially much more. So there had to be a way the two sides could come to an agreement. There had to be football in 2011. And ultimately, now, there will be.

As we prepare to finally discuss football, free agency, trades and training camps, it is worth a look at the winners and losers of the past four months.

That article made the front page of ESPN.com? Here's a quick re-edit:

It has been an arduous path the NFL and its players have traveled these past four months. It has been at times ugly, unnerving, nasty and unsettling. Labor disputes always are., and this one has been no exception.

Both sides took hits and nNeither side will walk away unscathed now that they have finally agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement.

That the NFL Players Association had to decertify, that the owners had to lock out the players, that there had to be a halt to league business was just silly needless when everyone was making money hand over fist.

The league was healthy, not broken. This dispute was about greed, plain and simple. It was not about putting the best product on the field or playing for the love of the game. It was about money, and how much everyone got.

Of course, the answer is that the players and the owners will continue to print money. The Television contracts will only get larger. The Fan interest will only grow. The Stadiums will continue to be packed (most of them), and the merchandise will continue to fly off the shelves.

The NFL is a $9.3 billion business today. Who knows what it will be in 2020, but it will not be less. It will be even more profitable in 2020, potentially much more. So there had to be a way the two sides could come to an agreement. There had to be football in 2011. And ultimately, now, there will be.

As we prepare to finally discuss football, free agency, trades and training camps, it is worth aHere's a look at the winners and losers of the past four months.:

It has been an arduous path the Sons of Steve Garvey and their readers have traveled trying to read this article. It has been at times ugly, unnerving, nasty and unsettling. Poorly-written articles always are, and this one has been no exception.

Ashley Fox took thesaurus usage and now will not walk away unscathed since she has finally received an overdue red-lining from SoSG Orel.

That SoSG Orel had to resort to grade-school journalism editing conventions, that the SoSG readers had to poison their minds with unnecessary words and verbose language, that ESPN had to resort to what must be a case of nepotism was just silly, when there are plenty of available writers out there.

Here's another Ashley Fox article, titled "DeSean Jackson to hold out?", when in fact the article says nothing that would indicate he has made that decision--in fact, the lead quotes a teammate who indicates Jackson has NOT made any decision:

PHILADELPHIA -- Michael Vick said Tuesday that he was unsure whether his No. 1 target, fourth-year wide receiver DeSean Jackson, will report on time to the Philadelphia Eagles' training camp, scheduled to open Wednesday.

"I spoke to DeSean yesterday, and we're trying to figure out what's going to happen," Vick said. "Hopefully he'll be here tomorrow. DeSean just has to think about it and has some decisions to make that only himself can make."

Sax, given that it's a fact how you and I both, within a minute of each other - perhaps a little more, perhaps a little less, but either way not by much - wrote posts mocking the style in which writing is done by Ms Fox is quite funny, or at least that's how I found it to be.

yeah, Fernie V, safari for the iPhone and iPad crashes our site constantly, we don't know why and we had to fire our IT department last year, so we're stuck. At some point, we might go through and try and take crap out of the sidebar, but for now we're still trying to debug...